Sita and Lava
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Sita and Lava is a 1885 paint by Unknown, a Impressionism work, depicting Kalighat, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a woman in a bright red dress with a yellow sash, holding a child’s hand. She’s carrying a yellow pot in her other arm. The woman’s face is simple, with bold outlines and flat colors. The background is a plain, light green. The child looks small and dark next to her. The painting feels flat, with strong black outlines around shapes. The colors are bright but not mixed smoothly. This style comes from the kalighat tradition.
The painting depicts Sita accompanied by her son Lava, fetching water, rendered in opaque watercolour on paper. Created in 1885 by an unknown artist, the work was acquired in 1894 from Miss M Steele as part of a collection inherited from her mother, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge. It is suggested that the images may have been originally collected by Steele’s grandmother, who had also lived in India.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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